From founder to CEO: How to lead your team from 10 to 100
The founder journey is to become an effective CEOs when scaling from a small team of 10 to a larger one of 100. Key differences between early-stage founders and growth-stage CEOs include shifting focus from immediate survival to long-term vision, replacing instinctive decision-making with structured processes, transitioning from hands-on problem-solving to empowering teams, and prioritizing trust over control. This requires three mindset shifts: trusting teams to handle details, focusing on strategic goals over short-term fixes, and leading through vision rather than individual heroics.
From Founder to CEO: How to Lead Your Team From 10 to 100
You’ve just raised a big funding round. The deal is done, the pressure’s off and you’ve got the cash to make your vision a reality. As a founder, it’s an important milestone. Take a breather, but then dig back in. Because this is where the work really starts.
Money alone won’t get you from 10 to 100, at least not in a sustainable way.
In order to scale sustainably, you have to become a new person — a CEO who leads differently than the founder who got you here.
We coach founders through this exact transition. It’s the starting point of our "From 10 to 100" framework, a guide to turn your startup into a thriving organisation. Becoming that CEO is how you make the money count.
Let’s explore what that takes.
The Early-Stage Founder vs. The Growth-Stage CEO
The leap from founder to CEO isn’t subtle. It’s a fundamental change in how you operate. Here’s how the two roles stack up across four key areas.
Focus: Early-stage founders zero in on the immediate. You’re working with your CTO on the MVP, closing the first sales and playing customer support when needed. Survival is the name of the game. Growth-stage CEOs shift their focus to the horizon. You’re defining where the company goes next and aligning the team to get there.
Decision-Making: At 10 people, you can call the shots. Decisions are quick, often instinctive, made in casual chats or on the fly. As a growth-stage CEO you need to implement structured decision-making processes. You set priorities, let your team execute and only step in for the big calls.
Team Interaction: Early on, you’re a teammate as much as a leader. You’re in the trenches and work directly with everyone. At scale, you need to learn how to guide your team from a distance. Your managers and specialists need to lead their domains independently. Your job is to empower and enable them.
Problem-Solving: As a founder, you’re the fixer. A customer is upset? You call them. Something doesn’t work? You find a different way to do it. Growth-stage CEOs build problem-solvers. You create systems, SOPs, and hire people to handle issues.
These differences matter because the founder’s playbook stops working as you grow. What kept you agile at 10 suddenly becomes a bottleneck at 30 or 60. Scaling demands a new approach to leadership.
Mindset Shifts for Scaling
Becoming a new type of leader starts in your head. There are three big shifts that pave the way.
First, trade control for trust. You can’t oversee every detail anymore. This can feel unsettling. Your business is your creation, born from your sweat and late nights. But trust is what lets you scale. You have the resources to hire capable people. Do that and give them room to shine.
Second, move from short-term fixes to long-term vision. Early days are about chasing quick wins and patching leaks as you go. At scale, you need to think bigger and more strategically. Where’s your company headed in the next 3-5 years? What opportunities and threats are on the horizon, and how can you prepare for those? It’s good to consider what’s the worst that can happen and run a pre-mortem. Then you can plan how to avoid it.
Third, stop being the solo hero and start leading a team. Your wins aren’t just yours now. They belong to your people. That’s a tough switch when you’ve been the one saving the day and you quite enjoy being the fixer. I’ve been there with founders who struggle to let that go. It’s emotional, but it’s the key to growth.
These shifts take time. They push against your instincts, perhaps also your identity. But they set you up to lead a bigger and stronger organisation.
Leadership Changes in Action
If mindset sets the stage; leadership brings it to life. Here’s how you can put your new role into practice.
Trust over control: Start small and hand off one process at a time. Assign it to someone you trust, or in case there is a personnel gap, hire someone who is more capable than you in that particular area. Give them the goal and perhaps and let them run with it.
Vision over fixes: Carve out time in your diary to sit down with your C-Suite and discuss your strategic goals and plans. Then share that plan with the whole team. Make it concrete and tie it to their work. When people see where the company is headed and know why their work matters, they will be more motivated and focused. Give your team a purpose, it’s a powerful driver. Clear goals, clear roles.
Team over solo: Celebrate their wins, not just yours. Spotlight a teammate who nailed a project and explain how it contributes to the bigger company goals. Give people kudos, even if (or maybe because) they didn’t solve problems in the same way as you would have solved them. Learn from others’ approaches.
Letting go doesn’t mean losing control. You need clarity and visibility. And accountability. Our coaching framework helps you maintain an overview, while enabling your team to take responsibility for the initiatives they own - and bring their own ways of doing things into play.
Your First Step From 10 to 100
Growing into the CEO your team needs is the bedrock of scaling from 10 to 100. You move from the founder who built the foundation to the leader who builds the future. That shift cuts through the grind of managing every detail and the People chaos that eats 50% of your time with 30+ employees. You lead with vision, strategy and purpose instead.
We’ve guided founders through this transformation, and seen businesses transform. This is the first piece of the "From 10 to 100" puzzle. Next, we’ll unpack the three phases of team scaling and how to master them.
